No Fence Can Hold Man With The Red Cape

July 8, 1987|By JIM MURRAY, Los Angeles Times Columnist

It was the bottom of the ninth inning of the game in San Francisco. The score was tied 6-6, but the Giants had the bases loaded with one out when the batter, Will Clark, hit a clean single -- or what appeared to be -- to center field.

Charging, the center fielder for Cincinnati dashed in, swept up the rolling ball and just kept running. He beat the runner from first base to second for a forceout and fired the ball to first, narrowly missing a double play. The winning run scored -- barely -- on the play.

The next night, in Dodger Stadium, in the third inning, with one out and Steve Sax on first for the Dodgers, batter John Shelby lofted a lazy fly to short center.

It was to fall safely, but Sax, suddenly seeing the Cincinnati center fielder coming after it, turned tail and went racing back to first without even looking back.

The ball wasn`t caught, but the center fielder quickly picked it up and threw to second for the force play on Sax.

Meanwhile, back at first base, Shelby, entitled to the bag, nevertheless got confused and began to run back to home plate. No one knew what he thought he was going to do when he got there, and umpire John McSherry was shaking like a bowl of jelly, he was laughing so hard, when he called Shelby out.

In the press box, a Cincinnati reporter was delighted. ``Just your regulation routine 8-4-3 double play!`` he called out.

The moral of these extraordinary episodes is that there is a remarkable new young athlete aboard in the pastures of center field these days.

In each of the above cases, it was his presence alone that caused the opposition to act like Little Leaguers. He is having that effect on the game.

Not since the great Willie Mays has anyone been the presence in center field that Eric Keith Davis of the Cincinnati Reds has become.

WHEN IS A HOMER NOT A HOMER?

The three-base hit may have become as extinct as the dinosaur with Willie Mays. The three-base hit disappeared in the glove of Willie Mays.

But the center-field home run may disappear in the glove of Eric Davis. Five times this year, he has soared over the outfield fence to take an apparent homer away from a player who was already going into his home run trot.

Jack Clark, for instance, would be alone at the top of the league`s home run hitters instead of trailing Eric Davis (25 homers) if it weren`t for Eric and his Electric Glove.

Some teams (e.g., the Cardinals) make a practice of trying to beat out infield hits. With Davis, they may have trouble beating out outfield hits.

Players like Eric Davis come along once a generation. They`re on loan from Cooperstown.

You can see it in their stride, in their eyes, in the way other players creep up to the top step of the dugout when they come up for batting practice.

Fans scurry for vantage points to catch home runs, umpires stop what they`re doing, even vendors pause to watch, because Eric Davis is more than just another speedster with a glove.

It`s not just that Eric Davis is fast. So is his bat. It has such velocity that 25 home runs have jumped off it this year, putting him up there with the Dale Murphys and Mike Schmidts.

Davis gets on base four out of every 10 times at bat; he has stolen 33 bases and driven in 65 runs.

``He`s going to be the first guy in history to hit 50 home runs and steal 100 bases in a season,`` roars Lasorda.

A LEAN CUT ABOVE

You might expect that you were going to be greeted with some imposing mass of muscle with a barbed-wire beard, a shaven pate and a chaw of tobacco in his jaw.

Eric Davis looks as if he got lost on his way to the ballet theater.

He`s so thin, you could mail him. He has no hips or waist. If he stands sideways, he disappears.

Pitchers used to look at him and figure he was going to try to bunt his way aboard. Instead, they found themselves swiveling around to watch Ruthian wallops disappear into the seats. He wields his bat like a blacksnake whip.

``The Reds have a pretty fast outfield,`` the writer was saying in the press box the other night. ``Yeah, I`ve seen it,`` retorted another. ``It`s wearing No. 44. It`s the fastest outfield I`ve seen since No. 24 on the Giants.``

It also gives the Reds an unfair advantage. It gives them an extra player.

How else would you describe a player who can play center field and shortstop or second base? At the same time.